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Sunday, June 24, 2018

Chile Roadtrip, So It Begins

I arrived in Santiago, Chile this morning (5am) for the start of the next case study in the Steve/Dave/Phil project. Why Chile? Because we wanted variation in Presidential systems (US, France, South Korea, Brazil and Chile) regionally, threat-wise, and age-wise. While we could have picked any South American democracy to compare with Brazil and the others, we chose Chile because it has a reputation for taking oversight seriously (and a conference trip to Argentina suggested Chile might be a more interesting case). We shall see.

What have I learned so far?

That Zoey Deutch and Glen Powell remind me of Lea Thompson and Alan Ruck in Set It Up, a romcom. The story is about two executive assistants who are so overworked that they scheme to set up their bosses (Lucy Liu and Taye Diggs). Digression: I wonder about Executive Assistant Spew (my daughter is now an EA for three folks at a Management company in Hollywood). Anyhow, Deutch is Thompson's kid, so it is not surprising that I see a lot of LT in her. Powell is not related to Ruck, but I can't help but see Ruck in this role. Fun Netflix movie good for ipad-ing during a flight given the increasingly lousy options.

I am not a fan of DirectTV on flights since I don't like the limited choice of movies nor losing the ability to control the timing. It was handy for watching some of the World Cup, but our takeoff coincided with extra time in the Germany-Sweden match, so we all missed it.

Panama City is as super-easy place to change planes.

Empanadas are a super lunch, but you probably knew that.

Caramel is a thing here:

Lots of romance on the streets on a Sunday morning.

I didn't expect cacti although I guess palm trees were not that surprising.

People are perhaps too helpful. I got rushed out of the airport and into my taxi before I could manage to rent a phone or get some Chilean currency. I have not arrived without currency on a Sunday morning since ... 1987.

It pays to stay in the arty area--I bumped into street muscians and folks selling their art on the way to and from dinner. Including two one-man band guys being a two man-band, if that makes any sense.

Lots of dogs, but the stray ones seem to be in very good shape and are pretty well treated--a guy hosing down the plaza slowed down to give a persistent dog some water to drink.

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Stephen M. Saideman

Intro

Greetings! I am a political scientist, specializing in International Relations, my research and teaching focus on ethnic conflict and civil-military relations. I watch way too much TV, and I like movies as well so I tend to write about both and find IR stuff in pop culture. I rant alot about American politics and sometimes about Canadian politics. I like to take ideas I once learned a long time ago and apply them to whatever strikes my fancy.